A long-running dispute between the Monsey Fire Department and local rabbis has recently led to the creation of an independent, “fully kosher” firefighting organization called Matzilei Aish, to serve the largely Haredi hamlet of Monsey, in Rockland County, New York. The initiative arose following the Monsey Fire Department’s campaign to recruit more Haredi firefighters, and after the department rejected a demand by some rabbis to submit to rabbinic oversight. 

Now, local officials are expressing concern about what they say is a dangerous development. The organization’s leader admits that its members are not fully trained, and officials worry that residents will call Matzilei Aish rather than 911, which they say can lead to serious problems. 

“Somebody’s going to die,” Spring Valley firefighter Justin Schwartz told Shtetl.

The organization was launched earlier this year by Rabbi Yechezkel Weiss, an influential rabbi and a member of the Skver Hasidic sect. Weiss initially began raising concerns three years ago, after a rising need for manpower at the local fire department led to a growing number of Haredi volunteers, who answered a call to join the department.

In a video posted to the department’s Facebook page, fire chief Hugh Jacobson said that the department has seen “a tremendous influx of new members who reflect more of the people in the community” in recent years. 

“You can reach people to become members that you didn’t think were reachable,” veteran firefighter Aaron Lerer told NBC4 in a segment that aired in July.

Lerer, who led the recruitment effort, was right, but only partially so. His work led to a fissure among Haredim – between those who now think the fire department must be subordinate to rabbinic oversight and those who disagree. The latter group includes the five commissioners of the fire district, all of whom are Haredi men.

As the number of Haredi volunteers grew, controversy began to play out in speeches, newspaper columns, and, most of all, via leaflets placed in local synagogues. The leaflets would later circulate on online discussion forums popular with Haredim, where they would generate heated discussions. Shtetl couldn’t independently verify their authorship.

In September 2020, Weiss issued what appears to have been one of the earliest leaflets, according to online discussion posts. He called on the community to demand that the local fire department, given its growing Haredi membership, be “entirely subject to Torah opinions” and be held under the strict oversight of the community’s rabbis.

In October 2021, Weiss published another leaflet in which he addressed himself to “the esteemed Torah-faithful Jews for whom the novel idea of a kosher fire department might still seem strange.” He asked that they consider the matter seriously, especially in light of what he termed a “horrific incident” that he claimed occurred the previous week: a film crew visited the fire department on Shabbat to shoot a documentary, and some of the Orthodox Jewish members were allegedly present.

“An unspeakable desecration of God’s name! May God have mercy on us!” 

A counter-leaflet, signed by someone claiming to be a Haredi member of the fire department, angrily accused the department’s opponents of endangering the community. The writer described an incident in which unattended Shabbat candles nearly caused a house to burn down because residents had been hesitant to call the fire department, as the increasingly heated controversy was beginning to stir general suspicion against the fire department.

In a speech in October 2021, which was posted to X, formerly known as Twitter, and delivered to what appears to be a group of Hasidic men, Weiss addressed the Brewer fire company — as Monsey’s Fire Department is sometimes called. The rabbi thanked the department for their efforts, their dedication, and their “public relations campaign” — a reference to their recruitment efforts. It was laudable, he said. “However, if you want to recruit members of our community, your company has to reflect the values of our society."

Weiss put forth his terms. He objected to Haredi firefighters performing non-essential tasks on Shabbat, such as driving trucks back from scenes of fire emergencies. He was also concerned about them having their photos taken, cleaning trucks, or performing other non-firefighting tasks on the day of rest. He also expressed concern about volunteers’ activities during downtime, such as socializing with non-Jewish firefighters or members of the opposite sex, or drinking and smoking.

In December 2021, Yanky Fligman, a member of the Vizhnitz Hasidic sect who had been unofficially involved in fire safety activities for several years, was voted in as one of the five fire commissioners. 

In an interview given days before the election, Fligman said that he was trusted by both sides of the controversy, and he believed their relationship should be peaceful. In him, he said, they both saw a potential mediator.

“Both sides believe I can gap the bridge,” he said, perhaps unaware of the misphrasing. “Will we accomplish anything? I can’t say.”

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The gap was not to be bridged.

In a leaflet issued in October 2021, following a fire emergency in which Weiss claimed Haredi “firefighters with yarmulkes flagrantly violated Shabbat,” he finally declared the ultimate solution: “We must uproot all Sabbath desecration in our town, and replace it with a kosher fire company, thus restoring the honor of the Sabbath to her full glory.”

In early 2022, a leaflet under the letterhead of “Matzilei Aish of Monsey” offered a Basic Exterior Firefighting Operations fire training course, free of charge, to anyone willing to take it. Thus, the new firefighter group was formed — at least unofficially — and began to aggressively recruit volunteers. 

Later that year, leaflets showed off images of Matzilei Aish’s first fire truck. Haredim “eagerly await the full opening of the Matzilei Aish Society,” the leaflets read.

The Monsey Fire Department could no longer ignore these developments, and a month later, they replied in a public letter, saying the rabbis’ efforts had “severely harmed recruitment and retention efforts.” It noted that its members had begun to experience harassment when responding to calls. “If this continues, it is only a matter of time before it leads to a scenario where someone is seriously injured or worse.”

Attempting to head off criticism of the department’s suitability for Haredi firefighters, the leaders described the accommodations they made to the religious concerns, such as adding a kosher food section to the firehouse kitchen, ensuring that alcohol would not be readily available, and installing security cameras to monitor the socializing activities.

But the department leaders pushed back against the rabbis’ other criticisms, writing in their letter, “As a government entity, the Monsey Fire District cannot and will not force religion onto prospective and current members.” They added that everyone was welcome to join, “regardless of gender or personal way of life.”

A version of the letter was also issued in Yiddish, four times as long and far more strident in tone. Both letters were signed by the Haredi fire district commissioners.

Unfazed, Weiss pushed forward. To support the establishment of Matzilei Aish, Weiss and his colleagues launched an online Yiddish-language crowdfunding campaign. They announced plans to grow into a “full-fledged, massive operation, able to respond to the most challenging [fire emergency] calls across town.” Plans were in place to purchase three new fire trucks, and to equip volunteers with the latest and best in protective gear.

In just a few months, the campaign raised over $500,000 from over 6,000 donors.

But even as a new firefighitng organization launched, some Haredim still protested the old one. A video that circulated on social media in October showed a group of protesters outside the Monsey Fire Department. In another video, a lone man stands outside the fire house crying: “This is a place of Sabbath desecration!” and then wailing, in mantra-like repetition, the Biblical verse: “Those who desecrate [the Sabbath] must be put to death!” 

In December 2022, a notice printed on the letterhead of “Matzilei Aish of Monsey” announced the “joyful news” that the first cadre of volunteers was ready to answer calls as early responders — adding in parentheses, “until the firefighters arrive,” effectively acknowledging that they were not in fact fully qualified as a firefighting force.

The group still needed new members, though, the notice said, and it was now offering its third class for fire safety responders. 

In February, an infographic on the Matzilei Aish Instagram account announced that it had recruited and trained 28 members, had the backing of 52 rabbis, responded to 41 calls, and already spent $70,000 on Matzilei Aish activities.

In July, the Matzilei Aish Fire Safety Group Inc. became an officially incorporated nonprofit entity. Weiss’s vision for a fully kosher firefighting organization, under full rabbinic oversight, had become reality.

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In an interview last month, Weiss told Shtetl that the group already has 35 members, but he admitted that his volunteers are not yet fully qualified. Local rabbis, he said, don’t believe they are ready “to deal with life-threatening situations.”

Then there is the issue with the beards. National Fire Protection Association standards require firefighters to be clean-shaven, or nearly so, in order to have a proper seal on an air mask. Haredi men, who typically grow their beards long, are only qualified to fight fires from outside of buildings, not inside. Weiss acknowledged this is a problem, and he said that in the long term, he hopes to hire more beardless people – for paid positions if necessary.

Despite its limited qualifications, Matzilei Aish has begun responding to calls. In an ad in a Haredi magazine in June, a Haredi-owned men’s clothing company thanked Matzilei Aish for extinguishing an electrical fire.

“If we get there first, there are many things that we can do,” Weiss said, such as “evacuating the people from the house,” and other tasks that don’t require entering the building. For anything beyond their capabilities, “we just stay away; we don’t do anything stupid.” 

But Chris Kear, the Rockland County fire coordinator, said that members of Matzilei Aish have put themselves in danger by fighting fires without the necessary protective gear or air packs, which two men are shown doing in a post on the Matzilei Aish Instagram page.

Firefighters also fear that in a fire, local community members might call Matzilei Aish instead of or before 911, and the emergency won’t be properly addressed. The concern isn’t misplaced. In local phone directories and other listings of emergency phone numbers, the Matzilei Aish number is now listed for fire emergencies— although 911 still appears as the number to call for police. 

“Something’s going to be out of hand,” Spring Valley firefighter George Cich told Shtetl. “It could cost somebody a life.”

Kear also said that if someone calls Matzilei Aish instead of 911 for a fire at a house or place of business, insurance companies might not pay for damages.

Weiss claimed that he tells people to call 911 for fire emergencies. “We recommend people call 911, or Brewer, whatever it is,” he told Shtetl. But recent posts on the organization’s Instagram account, and the account’s bio, advise followers to call Matzilei Aish — with no mention of 911. The posts include the organization’s number and the tagline, “Call us when you need us.” The promoted number is distinct from what the organization lists as its office number.

“I think they’re being duplicitous,” said firefighter and former Monsey fire chief Adam Gordon.

Gordon also reported that his colleagues had rocks thrown at their trucks by local Haredim, and streets were sometimes blocked to prevent fire department vehicles from passing.

Weiss told Shtetl he’d heard about such incidents and he condemns them, adding that some people just have “radical ideas in their heads.” In synagogue the previous week, he said, he delivered a statement saying that violence is unacceptable. “In no uncertain terms, it’s against the Torah, it’s against halacha, it’s against safety, it’s against humanity,” he said.

Following Shtetl’s inquiries, Matzilei Aish placed an ad in the daily print bulletin Luach Hatzibur making the same point. “Acts of violence have no place according to the Torah,” it read in Yiddish. “It also makes it difficult for first responders to get to the scene, which endangers lives.” A similar notice was posted to the group’s instagram page.

Although Weiss is the face of the campaign against the Monsey Fire Department, he has no shortage of ideological allies. In September, a letter signed by nearly 40 Haredi rabbis and published in Luach Hatzibur decried the “desecration of the Sabbath” by Jewish members of the local fire department. “A Jew is under no circumstances allowed to be a part of a life-saving organization that doesn't have in place a Shabbat system and is [not] entirely subordinate to the oversight of an expert rabbi,” the rabbis wrote.

A recent Sheva Brachot event following Weiss’s daughter’s wedding appears to have been hosted by Matzilei Aish, according to images and captions published in the Community Connections, a popular Monsey weekly. The photos show many notable rabbinic figures from a variety of Hasidic sects paying their respects.

In the meantime, the fire department across town still thrives. In the NBC4 segment that aired in July and focused on the department’s growing numbers of Haredi volunteers, firefighter Yitzi Grunwald noted that Haredi members “are critical in bridging the gap with residents who speak Yiddish rather than English.”

For the foreseeable future, such bridge-building clearly remains a necessity.